In environments having limited water resources or water sources that have been contaminated by minerals or microorganisms, the development and commercialization of systems and methods to regenerate potable water from available resources is paramount. To this end, a number of chemical and physical purification techniques have been developed to overcome these issues.
Physical filtration methods and chemical distillation have been used to generate water products that range from potable water for drinking to grey water for use in agriculture, sanitation, and the like. In certain enclosed environments, such as spacecraft, space stations, and biospheres, it is often desirable to provide potable water by recycling waste waters including high salinity brines and urine.
For example, in a manned spacecraft, water recovery from urine allows astronauts to subsist on a relatively reduced water reservoir supply, which can substantially decrease the costs associated with transporting water supplies and increases self-sustainability in cases where resupply may not be instantly available. However, current methods for recovering potable water from urine and brine are still limited on the amount of water that may be recovered, and limits on the efficiency of water recovery remain.